Mr. Tarasofsky

Website / Online Mechandising / SEO

Web Site Analytics - The Difference Between Watching and Listening

By Jerry Tarasofsky, CEO, iPerceptions Inc.

To create this dialogue, you must use whatever tools are available to watch and truly listen to what your web site visitors have to say. It has been our experience that many site owners believe that simply "watching" or tracking "hits" and following click-streams is sufficient to understand what is going on in the minds of their users.

At first glance, the difference between the actions of "watching" or "listening " in relation to understanding and interpreting visitor behavior at your web site does not seem that great. It can be argued that in the end, both provide some information about the visitor's overall experience with your site. How you interpret the information provided by watching and listening and how your marketing or development team takes action on that data, to a great degree, will determine how well you are able to respond to the needs, wants and desires, of your visitors - and how well you can build customer loyalty and encourage repeat visits through your web initiatives.

The analogy of someone watching vs. listening best describes the differences I am referring to. You can observe a guest's reaction to your new room design and know whether it had positive or negative impact, but until you actually listen to them and get their feedback in a form you can take action on, you won't know what if any impact that design had on their intention to return to your hotel.

I think it is important for web site owners to recognize that there is quite a fundamental difference in these two actions and that at iPerceptions we believe it is far more important for web sites focused on providing a rewarding customer experience to listen rather than simply watch.

In both cases, web site owners also face the additional challenge of finding metrics that will give them the data they need, in a format they can easily understand and react to at a price that is competitive and within budget.

The following is brief overview how the hospitality sector Watches and Listens.

Watching

There is a wide array of "Watching" software out there - both customized and off the shelf that can be used to analyze web site activity. Log files are a rich source of data - they track click-streams, time spent per page/section, page visits, and unique visitor counts. They can tell web site owners where visitors came from and where they go after they leave your site. They can also be used to track a user's path during a site visit. Your team can sift through log and transaction files and other usage data every day if they want and monitor the number of hits, page load time, and session lengths etc. All of this information exists in your log files and I recommend that some form of log file analysis be included in your online analytics program. Watching also includes the simple tabulation of basic information available from your existing data sources including changes in number of reservations booked via the online channel, changes in the number of queries to your call center that were generated by your web site as well as requests for additional information generated by the site.

Listening

There is an art and science related to listening to your web site users. Placing a "send us your comments" button on your web site is not what I am referring to when I speak of listening, though it is a place to start. When I refer to listening, I am talking about a structured, organized effort to continuously monitor the state of your site by asking your visitors to interact with your web site. It is my firm belief that the profitable and enlightened web sites of the future will be shaped by their community of users by empowering those users to direct the relationship. This will only happen if your users are offered an opportunity to interact, which by its very nature means there is an exchange of information - your user speaks and you listen.

Because relationships are dynamic, what users require today to build a strong relationship with your site may be different tomorrow. By continuously monitoring, listening and responding to what users like and don't like about your site, a strong relationship is created that turns users into repeat customers, and repeat customers into loyal advocates-in effect, these users become the visionaries for the organization.

The key to building such loyalty is not only discovering these previously invisible connectors, but also knowing how to use them to increase the bond between the organization and the user. The deeper the bond, the greater the value each brings to the relationship.

I believe that when organizations regard users as long-term assets, they maximize this exchange of value. By listening to users, responding to them and collaborating on what the relationship means from their point of view, your company not only increases profits, it gains other valuable benefits such as user advocacy.

And as important as listening is to the profitability of your web site, the ability to collect that "listening" data in a form that allows you to act on it is critical as well. In the hospitality sector for example, organizations like InterContinental, Radisson, Homestead and Savoy Group listen by mapping user feedback to a strategic behavioral framework that allows them to measure both immediate and long-term value as well as the value of the site experience to the user in terms of meeting desires. This knowledge is further refined by eliciting user responses for the principal attributes of any web site as contained in five key dimensions: Navigation, Content, Interactivity, Motivation and Adoption. The framework integrates all this knowledge allowing site managers to respond to user preferences in a comprehensive and actionable manner that builds strong user loyalty and advocacy enhancing the user's overall relationship with the organization driving increased profits and ROI.

So whether you choose to use a framework to organize how and what you listen to, or you simply ask your users for feedback using another structured format, remember that is it critical to stop and listen. It is no different than in the traditional business world. Where would you be if you ignored what your guests had to say?

Jerry Tarasofsky is CEO of iPerceptions Inc. Its webValidator® "captures the voice" of the online customer, helping companies learn more about their customers. Using a comprehensive perceptual framework to evaluate key elements of the visitor experience and, algorithms and modeling to identify attributes that drive satisfaction. The webValidator solution turns data points into easy-to-understand strategic and tactical decision support. iPerceptions’ clients in the hospitality sector include Crowne Plaza, Omni, Savoy, Wellesley, Homestead, Radisson and Holiday Inn. Mr. Tarasofsky can be contacted at jerryt@iperceptions.com Extended Bio...

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